ABSTRACT

Stillbirth is a baby born without any signs of life weighing at least 1000grams or with at least 28 weeks gestation. There is no burden affecting families is big and yet invisible in society and global arena as stillbirth. Stillbirth is a traumatizing experience for most women and a risk factor to development of psychological morbidity. The kind of care women receive during this critical period influences exhibition of psychological morbidity such as depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder which can be mitigated by counseling. Supporting psychological consequences of women enable them to take care of the present and subsequent children. The main aim of this study was to determine the use of counseling in mitigating psychological morbidity after stillbirth among women in Kitui and Machakos Counties. Specifically the study aimed to determine care offered to women after stillbirth, to evaluate psychological morbidity exhibited by women after stillbirth, to determine the effect of counseling on psychological morbidity after stillbirth, determine factors that influence psychological morbidity exhibited by women who deliver stillbirth after counseling and to determine the coping strategies employed by women after stillbirth. This was a quasi experimental study (non randomized controlled trial) with an interventional (Machakos County) and control group (Kitui County). Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale 1, Hopkins Symptom Checklist 25 (first 10 for assessing anxiety) and Impact of Events Scale-revised measured Depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder respectively. Women in the interventional group were counseled while those in the control group received routine care offered by midwives in the ward. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Fishers exact test with significant p